There are at least 1.9 million refugees living in the United States, and women and children constitute 80% of all refugees. Refugee women experience multiple transitions in flight and resettlement in western countries that impact their health and well-being. Refugee communities have emerged in which women are participating, but there is limited knowledge about the impact of refugee women's participation on the health of their community. This ethnographic study, using participant observation and interviewing, will examine community participation among Afghan refugee women and related individual and community changes. The larger aim is to develop knowledge of ways to stimulate and support women's participation in their communities and to explore methods for determining impact or change at the community level. Specific aims are: to describe the experience and meaning of community participation for Afghan refugee women living in the San Francisco Bay Area, identify intergenerational differences and similarities of Afghan women's participation, understand the meaning of Afghan community and Afghan identity for women participating in their community, and explore ways to evaluate the impact of Afghan women's participation on the Afghan community using participatory rural appraisal methods.